Chapter 2: The Cao Family of Pei State

  Time rewinds back six months ago.

  After the siege of Douchang was lifted, Guan Yu entered the city and met with Kong Rong. Then he led his troops back to Pingyuan. Kong Rong was most grateful to Taishi Ci and Shi Xiong, holding their hands and repeatedly saying: "These are my little friends." He wanted to recruit them to serve as officials in the imperial court, but Taishi Ci declined on the grounds that his elderly mother still needed care, and soon took his leave.

  Xun naturally understood Taishi Ci's feelings. Although this fierce general appeared rough and crude on the outside, he actually had a deep and complex mind. Kong Rong's ugly behavior of grasping for power in the besieged city was all too clear to him. How could he possibly follow such a superior officer and bring trouble upon himself?

  As for Kong Rong wanting to invite Shi Xun as a subordinate, Shi Xun was indeed slightly moved - he hadn't thought of relying on Kong Rong for long, but this Kong Wenju was after all a famous scholar of the present day, and stepping into officialdom from under his wing would give him some face. However, suddenly catching sight of him with an expression as calm as still water, and seeing him slightly shake his head, he had no choice but to make an excuse that he was too young and wanted to read books for a few more years, and hurriedly brushed it off.

  "Afterwards, Ji said to him: 'The governor is well-versed in literature but not skilled in military preparations. In these chaotic times, it's hard to last long. I have received his favor of promotion and cannot bear to betray him - you don't need to get involved in this muddy water, my virtuous nephew.'"

  Yi's judgment was correct, the county war was defeated, and Dou Chang was besieged. Although the million Yellow Turbans eventually retreated, Kong Rong's prestige in the country fell to the bottom. Whether it was the scholars or the common people, they all abandoned their homes and fled south to Langya to avoid disaster - who knows when the Yellow Turban bandits will come back again? As for Guo Xiang, he barely escaped this time, but next time, who knows if he'll be so lucky.

  Even the officials under the prime minister found excuses to resign and run away, except for Shi Yi, Wang Xiu and others who still had some integrity and temporarily stayed behind, but even Kong Rong's most trusted confidant, Wang Xiao, also threw in the towel...

  Kong Rong and others escorted the King of Beihai out of Douchang, returning to their country's capital, Ju County. They saw that more than half of the city wall had collapsed, and there were corpses on the streets. The scene was truly devastating - the Yellow Turbans were not strong in battle, but their destructive power was rare in this world. For many days, they helped Yu An comfort the refugees, repair the city defenses, and were busy day and night. After several days, they heard Yu An's summons and returned to Langya Commandery with a few followers, leaving their family property behind.

  That night, the family held an emergency meeting of all male members - it was called a "full meeting" because in addition to Yi, Zhuo, Yu, Xun and Jun, there were also Yi's confidant Ren Mou and the family's old servant Rong Mou.

  The meeting began, and Ji Zhen said straightforwardly that Qingzhou was not peaceful, and after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, many of their fields were trampled, two estates were destroyed, and most of their property was sent to Langya. "I don't want to leave the lord's side, but I fear that your attempt to flee and avoid disaster will ultimately be in vain."

  The general direction is to rush to Langya. On the one hand, many scholars and common people in Qingzhou fled to Langya to avoid disaster, including the Confucian scholar Zheng Kangcheng, so they passed by and had a good relationship with their fellow villagers; on the other hand, Xu State Governor Tao Qian was completely different from Qing State Governor Jiao He. It is said that not only did he treat scholars with courtesy and encourage agriculture and weaving, but also recruited and trained tens of thousands of strong state soldiers, who had been fighting bandits in the state for years and achieved great success - perhaps Tao Qian could keep that side peaceful.

  But where exactly is Langya? Moreover, being unfamiliar with the local customs and having no property in Langya, if there's no one to rely on, it's likely to be difficult to establish oneself. After all, legend has it that Zheng Kangcheng hid in a mountain valley drinking thin porridge and continuing to teach his disciples, but this is not possible for those who have large families and businesses.

  After much discussion, they finally followed Shi's suggestion and went to join the Wang family in Linqu County. The Wangs were a prominent clan from Langya, whose ancestor Wang Ren had served as Governor of Qingzhou during the reign of Emperor Huan, and thus had a good relationship with the Shi family (then known as the Shi clan). The current head of the Wang family was Wang Rong, the youngest son of Wang Ren, who lived in seclusion and did not serve in office. His nephew Wang Xiong, who was on good terms with Shi Zhi, seemed to have already arranged for his sister to marry Shi Zhi.

  So, Shi Yi had to take Shi Zhe, Shi Yun and Shi Xun together to protect the family property and go to Linyi to seek help from Wang Xiong. He hoped that Wang Xiong could help them buy some estates in nearby counties, so that they could temporarily settle down. As for Shi Jun, probably because her husband loved his youngest son and couldn't bear to be far away, Shi Yi planned to bring him along. Although their father was still in his prime, he needed his sons to serve him, so Shi Zhe and the others didn't have much objection to leaving one of the brothers behind. However, they argued for a long time about who should stay. Originally, the most suitable person to stay behind should be Shi Yun, because except for him, the other two brothers were not reliable, and Shi Xun was not Shi Yi's biological son after all. But in order to contact Wang Xiong in Linyi, it had to be Shi Yun, so in the end they had no choice but to leave that "devil king" behind.

  Very soon, the three brothers bid farewell with tears and set off south. Of course, Xun didn't feel too sad, he was just acting, but after all, he had been in contact with Shi for so long, even if he didn't consider him a senior, there were some old feelings, so he couldn't help but say: "If there is another alarm in the country, Uncle will come to find us again. Even if there is a righteous king and minister, it seems that it is not necessary to die for Kong Beihai." Shi nodded slightly towards him: "Don't worry, I have my own plans."

  They were riding in carriages and on horseback, hastily heading south. Before long, they left Beihai behind and entered Langya, arriving at the various counties. Previously, Zhe had taken charge of the family property and had not entered the county seat, but instead temporarily rented several houses near the relay station north of the city to stay in. However, when he arrived this time, he found that all the houses were empty, and even the property and servants had vanished!

  He was so frightened that his soul flew away, and he almost fell off the carriage. But another one was relatively calm and said: "We are all family slaves for generations, how can we take the money and run away privately? Moreover, Eldest Sister-in-law and Little Sister are still among them... Without our instructions, they dare not leave rashly, there must be an extraordinary reason, let's find a servant to ask."

  A group of people rushed to the relay station, where a white-haired and deaf official greeted them with a bow. He almost poked his finger into the old official's nose and asked repeatedly: "Do you still recognize me? More than ten days ago, I brought my family here and stayed in the house in front, but how come nobody saw us?"

  The old official bowed his waist, took a half-step to the side with his eyes cast down, and dodged the pointing finger. Then, narrowing his eyes, he sized him up from head to toe for quite some time before finally revealing a slight smile: "So it's Young Master Ji..."

  "My surname is , I've told you ten thousand times already, it's not Qi!"

  "Yes, yes, Master Qi Gongzi," the old servant said, while the other one was in a hurry to death, but this one was calm and composed. "Since you left, on the second day's afternoon... or maybe it was after noon, I'm getting older and can't remember clearly... that day should be the 9th or 10th, around noon, there were some noises heard from inside your mansion... my ears are deaf, of course, I couldn't hear anything, but Li Jia Erxiao who came to help with cleaning said so... actually, Li Jia Erxiao is not the second one in his family, but the third one, because..."

  His face turned blue with anxiety, a normally gentle and quiet scholar almost grabbed the whip from the coachman's hand to lash this old official on the head. Fortunately, his companion quickly grasped his hand: "Brother, slow down." He asked the servant how many five-cash coins he wanted, stuffed them into the old official's sleeve, and smiled comfortingly: "Don't worry, sir, take a deep breath, think carefully, and tell us slowly."

  The old servant bowed his hands: "Thank you, young master." Then he took a deep breath - "It was the day after your departure, in the afternoon, when I went to visit the mansion, it was noisy, and I saw a young master leading the family members and servants, all leaving the house towards the southeast direction. He also gave me a letter, asking me to hand it over to you, young master."

  "What's going on with the letter? Hurry up and bring it out!"

  The old clerk's eyes were dim and distant, and he shook his head slightly: "This letter... I'm getting old, my memory is not good, it seems to be stored in the transmission... Is it in the box or on the desk? Let me go back to the transmission house to find it..." As he spoke, he hunched over and slowly took a few steps, about to turn around.

  He hastily took a few more coins and stuffed them into the old official's sleeve. The old official had just turned halfway around when he suddenly slapped his forehead: "I remember now." He immediately pulled out a bamboo slip from his waist and handed it to Shi Yu with both hands: "The letter is here."

  He was so angry that he raised his whip again, but before he could take action, a figure suddenly flashed over and pushed the old official to the ground. "You lazy official," he cursed, "I just went to pass on a message for your convenience, and you dare to extort my master!" As he spoke, he knelt down and kowtowed to the Shi brothers: "Please wait until the young masters arrive."

  This man was a familiar face, and he was indeed one of the family slaves who had originally escorted the family's wealth south. Without even looking at the bamboo slip, he hastily asked him: "What's going on? Speak quickly!"

  The house slave reported briefly: "It was the third young master who came suddenly, saying that there was a friend's villa nearby, and then everyone went to live there - I led the way."

  "Uncle Mian?" she exclaimed in surprise and delight, "How did he get here?!"

  He is the third son of Shi Yi, who has been traveling and studying abroad all his life. According to the information he obtained from gossiping, this third young master is more clever than the eldest son, more learned than the fourth son, and even more so compared to Shi Jun, like a phoenix compared to a crow. He is deeply loved by Shi Yi, and even Kong Rong evaluated him as: "This son must be one of the most virtuous two thousand stone officials in the world."

  A group of people followed the family slave out of the temple, heading southeast. Along the way, Yu asked, "I don't know which household Third Brother is staying with, do you?"

  The house slave hastily reported back: "I heard that he is not a native, but rather a person from the state of Pei. He only moved to Xuzhou a few years ago - his surname is Cao."

  What?! The Pei State, the Cao family... It's as if a thunderbolt has exploded on top of my head! I'm going to faint, this can't be happening!